War Veteran Facing Eviction For Breaking Smoking Rules

Andy and Leora Nowicki are in the process of being evicted from Cedar Village,… (Rick Hartford, Hartford…)

August 23, 2013|By CHRISTOPHER HOFFMAN, Special to The Courant, The Hartford Courant

NEWINGTON — When Andy Nowicki was a combat infantryman fighting the Germans in World War II, the army gave him free cigarettes.

Now, the habit he picked up 70 years ago, thanks in part to Uncle Sam, might cost him his home.

The Newington Housing Authority is suing to evict Nowicki, who will turn 90 next month, and his 90-year-old wife, Leona, from their senior housing apartment in Cedar Village.

The reason: Nowicki, who can barely walk from old age and leg wounds suffered in the war, is smoking in his building's breezeway instead of the required 10 feet from the building.

"It's like they're going to turn this into a concentration camp," Nowicki said as he enjoyed a smoke in his rolling chair, wheeled the required distance from the building. "I don't know why they singled me out."

The couple's daughter, Janet Nowicki, said she has no idea where her parents will go if they are forced out of the $714-a-month apartment where they have lived for 20 years. They live on small fixed incomes, Janet Nowicki said, and her mother has advanced Alzheimer's disease, making any move especially difficult.

"You got me," she said. "How fast can I build a ramp on my house?"

Janet Nowicki and Sen. Paul Doyle, D-Wethersfield, a lawyer who is representing the couple at no charge, called on the housing authority to make an exception for Andy Nowicki based on his age, immobility and war record.

From 1942 to 1945, Nowicki fought in North Africa, Italy, France and Germany. He was wounded twice, the first time in the invasion of Anzio, Italy, one of the most brutal battles of World War II. He won a Bronze Star and two Purple Hearts.

"Personally, I couldn't sleep at night evicting a 90-year-old war hero from government-subsidized housing," Doyle said. "It's just totally incredible to me that we can't find an exception to the rules. I think common sense should prevail and let Mr. Nowicki live out his life because of what he did for all of us."

Newington Mayor Stephen Woods has also weighed in on the controversy, sending the housing authority a letter asking it to find a compromise. The town has no control over the independent housing authority, Woods said.

"I fully agree that you shouldn't smoke," Woods said, "but the man is 90 years old. There's got to be some way to compromise so that he won't have to leave the home where he's been for 20 years. Every issue isn't black and white."

But housing authority Chairman Stephen Karp and Executive Director Melinda Harvey said that an exception to the non-smoking policy, instituted about 18 months ago, is out of the question.

"Once you start that, where do you end that?" Karp said. "We made a decision that's in the best interests of the health and safety of the tenants. We really feel there isn't room for making an exception on this particular issue."

Karp and Harvey declined to comment on the specifics of Nowicki's case because it's in court, although Harvey suggested that he was mobile enough to get outside to smoke.

"He has a walker and a scooter," Harvey said. "He gets around the property pretty well."

Harvey said that residents were notified 2 1/2 years ago of the new ban on smoking inside and within 10 feet of apartment windows. The authority offered residents help in quitting smoking. Some residents moved out of the 40-unit complex because of the policy, she said.

"We had a number of tenants who have respiratory issues," Karp said. "People said that next-door neighbors were smoking and it was bothering them. We looked at the issues and thought, how we could address the needs of all our tenants?"

Doyle provided pictures of other tenants smoking within 10 feet of buildings and questioned whether they were also facing eviction.

Harvey said that the authority has taken enforcement action against other tenants who violated the policy. So far, one other case has gone to court, resulting in an agreement between the tenant and the authority, she said.

"There are people in various stages of our lengthy process," she said. "We don't go looking for people. If we get a complaint, we act on it. We're not singling anyone out."

On a recent day, Andy Nowicki struggled to stand and walk, moving slowly and leaning heavily on a cane. Earlier, he unzipped heavy orthopedic socks to reveal beet-red legs covered in scabs.

As far as quitting smoking is concerned, Andy Nowicki said he's tried, but can't.

"Are you kidding?" he said. "I got the best doctor in the world. He gave me gum. He gave me the patch."

The Nowickis are due in Hartford Housing Court on Sept. 3. Elliot Lane, the attorney representing the housing authority, said he expects a mediation session that day.

"Can a compromise be reached?" Lane said. "We're not in court yet. I'm looking forward to meeting with Sen. Doyle to see if we can find an agreement satisfactory to both parties."